After Dark

By: Mark Gomes
Date: 30th Jan 08
Release: Compilation
To Cure: A predictable playlist

What:
After Dark

Who:
V/A

On:
Italians Do It Better Records

Where:
Troubleman Unlimited Store

MySpace:
here

Baby Boomers' Disco chintz returns emasculated and in altogether more sinister form with the new Italians Do It Better compilation, After Dark. Recent 12" and blog-only tracks by label artists Chromatics, Glass Candy, Farrar, Professor Genius and Mirage plunder Moroder and Studio 54 signifiers with cool and deadly intent, electro-shocking their falling synth patterns, Cabasa'n'bass rhythms, vocoder and electrolised strings to new, mercurial heights. Steeped in autoerotic detachment, Mafia toughs, Motorik rhythms and ethereal synths, the collection identifies a new strain of Euro-syle Darkwave alive and thriving in the United States.

Covers of Kraftwerk, Indeep (remember ‘Last Night a DJ saved My Life'?) and Robin Crutchfield's Dark Day are included, giving a good idea of the re-animated territory we're talking about. Everything smells of damp, allure and crime, with icy sequencing, pulsing bass and singing by machines or femme fatales only. Farrar sounds like Jodi Foster's character in Taxi Driver let loose in a Hague crack basement; Mirage abstracts Depeche Mode for the red light district; and Chromatics' ‘In the City' reminds of Iggy's ‘The Passenger' gone ice-skating. Gina X Performance and Guy Bourdin have had a lovechild in Portland, Oregon.